The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, and Echo. TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 1881.

Auckland Star, Volume XXVI, Issue 4521, 25 November 1884, Page 2

The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, and Echo.

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 1881.

For the cause that lacks urtrtanoe, For the wrong that needs resistance, For the future in the distance. And the good that we can do.

Men are generally better than their religious creeds, but when we come to politics we almost invariably find! that people are far behind the ideal of the system under which they live. This is especially true when the political ideal is an exalted one* and nehce the tfnited States of America present the anomalous spectacle of a splendid social basis working out miserable results, and a model system of Government very imperfectly administered. Not only so, but Americans themselves, by their speech and manner, betray too often that they are incapable of appreciating the true dignity of their Empire's foundation, and the high privileges which her citizens enjoy. The commercial morality of Brother Jonathan was lately assailed by an American writer in a magazine article entitled, "Are We a Nation of Rascals?" and it would appear, when we look at the amenities of a Presidential-election,, that political morality is at even a lower ebb than the commercial. If half the allegations of personal corruptness and shocking private immorality made against Presidential candidates have even a semblance of truth, and if these are the best men whom a great people can choose for their Chief Ruler, then no epithet would be too strong to describe the political character of the people. The ""Milwaukee Sentinel," during the recent contest, said :—" The Democratic idea is that political victories can be bought for . money; that popular suffrage is a fraud and a failure, because of the corruptibility of men ; that there is no such thing among the masses of men as resistance to bribery. From Democratic journals everywhere we hear this repeated—that the majority of men will sell their votes."' What is here alleged of the Democrats as a party is no more true of them than it is of the Republicans ; and outsiders who do not care for nice distinctions might be pardoned if they concluded from the above and kindred expressions that a Democratic people must be essentially -venal, corrupt, arid altogether devoid of political morality. If the "seamy side " of any thing or principle is constantly presented, people get to believe that there is no better side to show, and their judgment, though incorrect, is certainly justifiable.

It is cheering to turn from American practical politics and hear the theory of •Democracy eloquently expounded by one of the ablest Americans of our time, Mr Jas. Russell Lowell, the United States Minister in England. Elected lately as President of the Midland Institute';' the Hon. Mr Lowell delivered his inaugural address at Birmingham on the sth of October last, when he spoke on the subject of " Democracy "to a large auditory. He described the Democratic theory as that which maintained that those constitutions were steadfast which had the broadest base; and he contended'that, notwithstanding certain exceptions, the experiment of applying this principle in the United States had been, on the whole, a prosperous and successful one. The raal essence of Democracy was,'he thpught,fairly enough defined by the First Napoleon, when he said that the French Revolution meant a clear pathway for meritof whatever kind. Whatpeople were ifraid of in Democracy was not so much the thing itself as what they conceived, to be its necessary adjuncts and conse

'qilehces. One of its most disagreeable features to some people was its habit of asking the powers that be, at the most inconvenient moment, whether they were the powers that ought to ba Democracy he contended, was ft Gwi; servative force, but there .*&s a danger that Socialism .riijgijt .find a-fulchim in it. , V.'hile declaring that his oVrh niind \s of a .distinctly Conservative cast, Mr Lowell appears to endorse the political economy of Mr Henry George, whom he believes to be right in his impelling principle as well as in his aims. Com-, munism, he says, means barbarism ; but Socialism means co-operation and community of interests—in short, " the practical application of Christianity to life that has in it the secret of an orderly and benign construction." If Mr Lowell is correct—if t)emdcfacy is a help towards Socialism) and Socialism is pfdtticfi.l OHHsU.ari.itf — IMH i 3 little caiisvi for wonder it the people c>f the United States come far short of their political privileges. Besides, it is well to be reminded, as Mr Lowell apologetically stated, that the poorest, the most ignorant, and the most turbulent Of Eui-opeaii populations haYe1 bectt absorbed by the tjHitfed . States, atiU have had the full rights of citizenship suddenly conferred upon^ thjem.. It will modify, British and co!on!a! opinion regarding tlie vices of Democracy to remember further that England and her colonial possessions are as essentially Democratic as are the- United States—that in fact the Republicanism of America is a development of free British institutions—a necessary outcome of Constitutional Government, and only a further step towards that Christian Socialism which, if everit holds sway on earth) will be the sure forerunner of Millennial tiriies: '

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